No. 76 Castle StreetPaul Bennett & Dennis Nebiker

A small excavation in advance of the construction of a basemented rear
extension to no. 76 Castle Street was undertaken during August 1988.

The small narrow garden of the premises was known to overly the
portico of the Roman temple precinct, first located on the adjacent site
of nos 77-9 Castle Street, now St James' House, in 1976 (Arch.
Cant. xcii (1976), 238-40). Amongst many discoveries during the
earlier excavation was an intact row of stylobate blocks for the
colonnade supporting the pitched roof of the portico, this revealed in a
small trench against the party wall separating the two sites. The 1976
excavations also provided important Early Anglo-Saxon finds in dark
earth deposits overlying the old Roman portico and courtyard surfacings;
these included the remains of a sunken-featured Anglo-Saxon building,
which re-used fragments of a Corinthian capital as chock-stones in one
of its load-bearing post settings. The excavation at no. 76 Castle
Street was undertaken in the hope that further portico stylobate blocks
would be revealed under early Anglo-Saxon dark earth deposits.

The excavation, funded by Mr Colin Tomlin, the owner of the property,
commenced with machine removal of garden soils that had accumulated
over a considerable period. Several post-medieval rubbish and latrine pits
were found to have cut earlier levels: these included a large brick-built
soakaway located against the rear perimeter wall of the garden. A number
of medieval features, mainly pits, were also encountered. The earliest of
these, a wide linear slot extending across the excavation on a north-east
to south-west axis, dating from the mid twelfth century, proved to be a
robber trench for the Roman stylobate. Large fragments of greensand
blocks and tip lines of mortar from stylobate masonry were noted in the
soft backfill of the robber trench.

Overlying the final late Roman courtyard surface was a 15 cm. thick
deposit of dark loam, which yielded a small corpus of sixth-century
potsherds and an early Anglo-Saxon copper alloy brooch. The matrix of
the dark loam contained considerable quantities of Roman building debris,
including patches of compact gravel and fragmented tile, perhaps,
indicating the presence of rough surfacing associated with the
structure, located nearby in 1976.
A large number of late Roman coins were retrieved
from within and under this dark earth horizon, their frequency increasing
as the latest Roman courtyard was uncovered.

The latest Roman courtyard, of flints, pebbles, crushed tile and brick,
crushed waste mortar and greensand and limestone lumps extended over
the greater part of the trench. Worn areas in the compact pea-gritted
horizon appeared to indicate that disturbance may have occurred during
the formation of dark earths after the metalling. This phenomenon noticed
during earlier episodes of excavation in the temple precinct (Arch. Cant.
xciv (1978), 275-77) may relate to an early phase Anglo-Saxon occupation,
when the southern corner of the temple enclosure was utilised for some
form of agricultural activity, perhaps the penning of animals.

The latest Roman courtyard extended as a continuous horizon across
the earlier portico position, broken only by the robber trench of the
stylobate. In earlier excavations it had been clearly demonstrated that the
portico had been demolished and its paving stripped prior to the laying
of the final courtyard. Coin evidence from earlier excavations indicated
that demolition may have taken place in c. A.D. 350-60, but no datable
finds were recovered from the present excavation to confirm this. A
well-defined linear depression in the final courtyard surface against the
north-west side of the stylobate robber trench proved to be
subsidence into the
backfill of a late Roman robber trench for the stylobate drain. Fragments
of greensand recovered from the fill of the robber strongly suggested that
the drain was of stone designed to take water from the portico roof.

A sequence of three well-defined courtyard metallings was excavated
west of the portico, the earliest containing a high percentage of greensand
and limestone chippings in its matrix. Deposits of poured mortar and clay
under the final metallings in the portico appeared to be the disturbed
remnants of construction and bedding deposits for a possible stone
pavement.

The early courtyards and associated deposits were remarkably void of
finds. Earlier excavations were equally remarkable for the paucity of dating
evidence. Collectively however, the small group of datable finds from
earlier episodes of excavation suggests a construction date for the temple
precinct of c. A.D. 100-120.

We are grateful to Colin Tomlin Associates for funding the excavation.